JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hamas rejected the Palestinian Authority’s decision to unilaterally declare a state in the West Bank and Gaza, saying it should take over all of Israel.
"(W)hy not declare a Palestinian state from the sea [Mediterranean] to the river [Jordan]" rather than in the West Bank and Gaza only?" Hamas spokesman Salah Bardweel said Monday, Ha’aretz reported.
His remarks followed declarations over the weekend by chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat that the Palestinian Authority would ask the United Nations Security Council to recognize an independent state along the 1967 border lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
"This move is not a meaningful declaration. It simply aims at escaping the benefits of resistance against the occupation," Bardweel said. "Instead of threatening to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state to be established in the air, we should work on liberating the occupied territories and end the current internal [Palestinian] division."
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